9-year-old mystery solved: Genetics used to ID slain man dumped in Perry County

• By Jenna Wise/PennLive.com

The man whose gunshot-riddled remains were found nine years ago at the bottom of a Perry County embankment has been identified and charges filed in his death, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

The skeletal remains were discovered May 27, 2014, in a wooded area in state game lands off Trout Run Stream, off Idle Road in Rye Township. Pennsylvania State Police later announced that the victim had was shot multiple times — including in the head — at close range.

But his identity and who killed him remained unknown for nearly a decade.

District Attorney Lauren Eichelberger announced Wednesday at a news conference a break in the case. She said DNA was extracted from the remains last year and sent for forensic testing. Comparisons led to a distant relative and helped to identify the remains as of Michael Allen Holober, 47, authorities said.

With the genealogical connection, authorities determined the remains belonged to Holober, who was living in Strasburg, Virginia at the time of he disappeared, around 2012, Eichelberger said.

Investigators determined James Callahan fatally shot Holober at a Strasburg home and traveled to Perry County to dispose of his body, Eichelberger said. It’s unclear why Callahan came all the way to central Pennsylvania to dispose of the remains, she said. She believed he was familiar with the area and simply drove and “picked a place.”

Callahan was arrested in Strasburg on Tuesday, Eichelberger said. Criminal proceedings will move forward in Virginia, as that’s where authorities say the majority of the criminal activity took place.

“This case is a testament that even as time passes, unsolved cases are not forgotten,” she said.

When investigators spoke with Holober’s brother Tuesday night, state police said he was tearful and incredibly thankful to have answers about what happened to his brother.

“It’s always a long and arduous process, particularly when we start with a lot of unknowns,” Eichelberger said.

Genealogical DNA comparisons have led to arrests in a number of central Pennsylvania cases in recent years. In the summer of 2022, Lancaster County prosecutors announced that “nontraditional” DNA technology led to the arrest of a Lancaster man in connection to the 1975 stabbing death of Lindy Sue Biechler, 19.